Nicholas Wilde was not a morning fox. His eyes snapped open as he fought the urge to smash the little alarm clock that had woken him. He stretched out his muscles, still aching from the rigor of police work, before pulling himself out of his drawer-turned-bed. He plodded along the length of his apartment with his eyes half-closed, and he narrowly missed hitting the pipe protruding from the ceiling. He stepped into the shower, and braced himself for the ice-cold stream of water.

After the cold, groggy, and wet fox came out of the shower, he gave himself a good shake to dry off. As Nick put on his uniform, he remarked on how well police blue complemented his bright orange fur. He stopped for a second and took a second look at the badge, taking note of the words on it: "Trust, Integrity, Bravery." A small smile appeared on his face as he pinned it to his chest. He was happy that he was finally able to apply those words to himself. Nick picked up his keys, and walked out the door.

By the time Nick walked through the doors of Precinct one there was a noticeable bounce in his step, accentuated by the two cups of coffee he had downed that morning. As he passed by the front desk on the way to the bullpen, Clawhauser greeted him in his usual flamboyant fashion, which was only accentuated when Nick slid a box of donuts onto his desk.

Just before he reached the bullpen, the fox heard small footsteps running down the hallway behind him. "I wonder who that could be." Nick whispered to himself before turning around and facing the culprit.

"Hey Carrots."

"How are you doing, Piberius?" The bunny replied, a familiar smirk on her face.

Nick groaned. He wished he had never told her his mother's "little joke."

"Alright, c'mon Officer Hopps, we've got to get to roll call."

When the Chief's presence was announced, the bullpen broke out into the loud hollering, trumpeting, and howling of the officers of Precinct One. Chief Bogo stepped up to his podium , cleared his throat to silence the more exuberant among them, and began his announcements.

"First order of business, congratulations are due to the following for being approved for promotion from probationary to regular officers. William Stripes, Alexander Kuduson, and Nicholas Wilde."

At this announcement, the fox sat up a little straighter.

"That being said, assignments for today are as follows: Fangmeyer, Del Gato, there has been a string of burglaries in Tundratown, get to the bottom of it. Officers Wilde and Hopps, there's been a vandalism in Savannah Central, find who did it. Everyone else, assignments remain as they were yesterday. Dismissed!"

Nick and Judy stepped up to take the folder from Bogo, and walked to their cruiser to go over the contents. Judy couldn't resist peeking. Nick thought she looked like a kit on Christmas.

Judy ran down to the garage while Nick walked behind her. "Come on!" She yelled. Nick promptly began walking as slow as he could.

"I'll drag you in by one of those pointy ears if I have to, Nick!". Nick jogged the rest of the way to the car.

Nick pulled out a picture of the vandalized convenience store, and remarked, "Looks like a pretty standard tagging to me. Just a message and not much else. Probably some teenager."

"Let's go find them then! No sense waiting around, we've got some justice to dispense!" Judy exclaimed with glee.

Judy ran down to their cruiser while Nick walked behind her. "Come on!" She yelled. Nick promptly began walking as slow as he could.

"I'll drag you in by one of those ears if I have to, Nick!" Nick jogged the rest of the way to the car.

As they drove to the scene, Nick found himself looking out the window at the city around him. Crossing the street, and holding up traffic, was a herd of goats. Clearly surprised at the sight was a pair of rabbits clutching a map. They were tourists from the burrows, Nick guessed. Walking past them was a pair of elephants holding hands and sharing, what else, a jumbo pop. Nick thought back to the first day he had first met the bunny sitting beside him. Were it not for her kindness that day he would have left the store sans jumbo pop and would be without the friend and the life he had today. A voice jolted him out of his thoughts.

"We're here."

"What?" Nick replied.

"We're at the scene of the crime, silly."

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, "That's right, let's get going."

The pair walked up to the wall. It had not been visible in the picture, but Nick noticed a clear message in it now, "Go back to the forest, savage." Nick saw Judy grind her teeth in frustration out of the corner of his eye. Clearly looking to distract herself, she searched around and confirmed that nothing had been left behind by the perpetrator, while Nick looked around to see if there was anywhere nearby that had met the same fate, his characteristic smirk looking a little more forced. "Why don't we go in and ask the store owner if they know anything?" Nick suggested.

The owner, an amicable coyote named Tracy, was unfortunately of little help, saying that there was nobody in the store when it was hit, and there were no security cameras on that side of the building. "You might try asking around to see if anyone else has seen something like this." She added helpfully.

As they walked away from the scene, Judy's ears were nearly dragging on the ground while she complained that the perp would never be brought to justice. As she opened the door to her cruiser, something caught her eye, and she bounded down the street, yelling "STOP IN THE NAME OF THE LAW!"

Nick looked up and saw that that "something" was a white-tailed deer with a can of spray paint, getting ready to tag the adjacent building. The buck noticed Judy and a look of terror formed on his face, Nick thought that he looked like a tad like the prototypical "deer in the headlights." He then darted away down the road, and turned down a nearby alley, and Nick realized that there was only one other place he could come out, by their squad car. Nick sprinted over to the exit of the alley, and when the deer saw Nick waiting there, he skidded to a stop and put his hooves up. "I give up." he said resignedly. Nick remarked to himself that he could not have been older than sixteen, a teenager like he had suspected. He saw Judy pulling out her handcuffs to arrest him.

"You're coming back to the station with us. You have the right to remain silent..." After she had put the buck in the car, Nick pulled her aside. "You're not seriously taking him to the station, are you?"

"What do you mean? He needs to be brought to justice. You saw what he wrote Nick!" Judy replied, her voice tinged with anger.

"Sure I did Judy, but he's just a kid!"

"I don't see how that matters, Nick. If we want to get rid of the anti-predator attitudes in this city, we have to stop people from doing things like this!" She pointed at Nick. "How can you be defending him!"

"Throwing the book at a teenager is going to solve anti-predator bias in Zootopia? Really?" Nick threw his hands up in exasperation.

"I joined the force to get the bad guy. That's why we have police, right? To stop people from doing bad things!"

"Judy, if you put this kid in jail, you're going to do three things" Holding up his paw and counting them off one by one, he furthered "First, he's going to hate the people who arrested him, one of whom so happens to be a fox. Second, you're going to give this kid a stain on his record that he'll never be able to clean off, and third, and maybe you don't understand this because you're a country bunny, this kid is going to go to jail, and you know what? He's going to get into some bigger crimes than writing an edgy slogan on a wall. I've seen it a hundred times. Am I clear?" Nick finished, keeping his voice level despite his frustration.

"So what are we supposed to do then, just let him go?"

"We take him into the store to apologize, then we take him to his parents, if he has any, and give him a warning. The kid gets punished but it's not permanent. Everybody wins."

Judy sighed, "Alright, we'll do it your way this time, but how are we supposed to find his parents in the first place?"

"Just ask him Carrots, you saw how he was, he's just being rebellious, typical teenager," Nick laughed a little at this. "I think you should be the one to talk to him, considering the content of his little message." Nick finished, smirk again planted firmly on his face.

They walked back to the squad car, took out the quivering buck, and Judy pulled him aside and explained the terms that Nick had set down, making sure to note that it had been the predator on their team who had gotten him off the hook this time. The owner agreed not to press charges so long as as the cowering deer, Jamie, agreed to clean the place up.

As they drove Jamie back to his house nearby, he started to sob in the back seat. Nick looked at Judy, who raised her eyebrow. Nick gave a reassuring nod, and she looked back to the road with a sigh.

At the buck's house, they presented Jamie to his mother, a furious doe who swore that Jamie would "never see the light of day again." She thanked the officers for their work, noting that he had been "getting into the wrong crowd recently." With that she closed the door and Nick and Judy were left to go back to the station.

As they went to the precinct Nick noticed Judy fidgeting in her seat. "What's wrong Carrots?" he asked.

"Bogo is going to kill us, we just let off a known criminal, who resisted arrest no less!" Her voice got higher near the end, palpable tension in it.

Nick replied calmly, "He is not going to care, Fluff, this is normal police work. Just because you always book the criminal, even when it's yourself, doesn't mean everyone has to." He chuckled as he remembered that Judy had ticketed herself on her first day.

"I wish I hadn't told you about that." she grumbled, although Nick noticed her shoulders relax a little.

When they arrived at the precinct they heard a familiar sound echoing through the hall, "WILDE! HOPPS! MY OFFICE, NOW!"

After the buffalo had sat down at his desk, he gestured to the two officers to sit. "How did the vandalism case go?" he asked with a blank expression.

"I don't see why you have to yell..." Nick began.

Judy stuttered, cutting him off, "Well...it..."

Nick interjected "We found the vandal, gave him a warning, and brought him home to his mommy."

"And I assume this was not Officer Hopps' idea?" Bogo leaned in towards Nick.

"No, sir, it was mine." Nick said, his expression becoming more serious.

The buffalo leaned back "Good job Officer Wilde, I was planning on talking to Officer Hopps over here about the need for leniency anyway, although it looks like you've knocked some sense into her. File your reports and drop them off with Clawhauser, then you're dismissed for the rest of the day."

As they walked out of the Chief's office, Judy stopped in the hallway. She turned to him and said slowly, "Thanks, Nick."

Nick smiled, "Anytime Carrots."